Following a loss that looked closer on the scoreboard than it really was on the field, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders recognized the need to get something going on the ground.

“It’s a struggle to run the ball,” he said. “And we got to figure that out because now you’re one dimensional and it’s easy to stop a team when they’re one dimensional and that’s who we are at this point of time.”

That quote came after a 28-16 loss at UCLA on Oct. 28, 2023, when the Buffs finished with 25 rushing yards on 24 attempts.

CU never figured it out last year and has still yet to cook up the right formula for a run game two games into this season.

“We haven’t run the ball like we wanted to consistently,” Sanders said following a 28-10 loss at Nebraska on Saturday, when the Buffs finished with 16 rushing yards on 22 attempts (half of which were sacks or quarterback scrambles). “But rarely do you have a great running offense and a great passing offense. Rarely you have that. One is going to have to be the lesser of the two.”

One certainly is lesser of the two, but at this point there’s no need to try to develop a great running game. The Buffs (1-1) just need to develop a serviceable running game to go with a dywnamic passing game led by senior quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to have some type of running game, because we have backs that can flat out do it. We really do,” said Coach Prime, whose team will visit Colorado State on Saturday (5:30 p.m., CBS).

Coach Prime touted the talent of the running back room last year, too, but CU never gave that group a chance to shine. CU finished last in the country in rushing (68.9 yards per game) and the running backs averaged just 17.9 attempts per game. Dylan Edwards and Anthony Hankerson led the ground game, but with a combined total of only 640 yards and two touchdowns.

The entire group of five scholarship backs from last year is gone, with Hankerson (now at Oregon State) and Edwards (Kansas State) combining for 323 yards and five TDs through the first two weeks with their new teams.

CU’s new group of five scholarship backs, meanwhile, is once again barely being used. Through two games, the backs are averaging a paltry 12.5 carries per game. Ohio State transfer Dallan Hayden has 14 carries for 52 yards, former walk-on Charlie Offerdahl has nine carries for 19 yards, and Arkansas transfer Isaiah Augustave has two carries for six yards.

The numbers by the backs — 25 carries for 77 yards (3.1 average) — through two games suggest the Buffs aren’t good at running the ball. More concerning is the lack of commitment to getting a run game started and in rhythm, though.

“Of course, whenever you’re able to run the ball consistently, and whenever you able to, then that opens up the pass, you know?” quarterback Shedeur Sanders said. “But it’s just like, you’ve got to understand what your team is good at. Why would we keep running the ball if, OK, we’re out there and we get in a situation where it’s a must-get and we don’t get it?”

That’s a valid point except that for the most part this season, the Buffs’ running plays have come on the must-get situations. Coach Prime, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and Shedeur have yet to allow the run game to get into a flow early in games.

To be fair, seven of the first 12 offensive plays of the season were designed runs, against North Dakota State last week. Since then, however, it’s been almost all about the pass.

Against Nebraska, the Buffs didn’t hand off to a running back until their seventh offensive snap. That was a fourth-and-one handoff to CU’s smallest back, Offerdahl, who was tackled for a 2-yard loss.

In the first half, CU ran 32 offensive plays and only four were designed runs.

“Flow of the game,” Coach Prime said of why the Buffs didn’t have more designed runs. “Pat has done a wonderful job (calling plays). I’m not going to go there whatsoever. Pat has done a wonderful job of putting us in situations. But we got to want that. We got to want to run the ball. We got to have those guys (on the offensive line) salivating, ‘Coach, let’s run, let’s run, let’s go get it.’ So we’re going to get to that point.”

Maybe they will get to that point, finally, but under Coach Prime they have yet to get there. And two games into the season, they are once again last in the country in rushing, at 37.5 yards per game.

“We know we have to do a better job offensively on (pass) protection,” Coach Prime said, “as well as trying to figure out how to establish a run game and be consistent with that.”